Rick Tocchet changes Flyers lineup after season-opening loss

The Philadelphia Flyers’ lineup for the season opener raised a lot of questions, and a few of those are being answered at practice on Friday. After the Noah Cates line was the only trio that generated much of anything on Thursday night in Florida, every other trio has a new look on Friday.

Per PHLY’s Charlie O’Connor, the forward lines were as follows:

Travis Konecny – Sean Couturier – Matvei Michkov
Christian Dvorak – Trevor Zegras – Owen Tippett
Tyson Foerster – Noah Cates – Bobby Brink

Now this is more like it.

The top line had plenty of success last season. They were the Flyers’ second-most used line behind only the Cates line, and had 53.3% of the expected goals share and outscored teams 16-12 in 230 minutes at 5-on-5, per MoneyPuck.

The downside of this line is that Michkov and Konecny both prefer to play on the right side. But hockey can be positionless once you get into transition, and moving to the left wing might be most beneficial for Konecny and the Flyers.

The second line is a solid group. Pairing up Dvorak and Zegras makes a lot of sense, and using Tippett as the third does as well. Tippett is going to need to be moved around a bit before finding where he fits, but the other two could play well together based on their on-paper skillset.

The third line is the third line. It’s going to stay together until the Flyers need to move one of those players up in the lineup.

And this looks like an NHL fourth line. Whether it’s Luchanko or Abols at center — O’Connor noted that Luchanko got the first rep at practice –, they both bring different things to a fourth-line center role with the gritty Grebenkin and Hathaway at wing. This is a line that won’t play minimal minutes as they did with Nic Deslauriers in the season opener.

We’ll see just exactly how the Flyers line up on Saturday night in Carolina against a tough Hurricanes team, but this group of lines already looks a lot better than what they ran out on Thursday night.

On defense, the Flyers appear to be going with the same pairs:

Nick Seeler – Travis Sanheim
Adam Ginning – Jamie Drysdale
Egor Zamula – Noah Juulsen

The Flyers desperately need Cam York to get healthy, and they are hoping for him to return for the home opener on Monday. But it might be better for York and the Flyers in the long run to not rush him back until he’s 100% good to go.

That means another huge workload for Travis Sanheim, who played 27:15 on Thursday night, 5:06 of which came on the penalty kill.

The Flyers were largely outplayed without their new alternate captain on the ice. They led in shot attempts 12-10 in Sanheim’s 18:33 at 5-on-5, but the Panthers had a 30-23 advantage with Sanheim off the ice, per Natural Stat Trick.

Hopefully, the Flyers will be able to find some chemistry and momentum to build on for the home opener on Monday night against the Panthers.

Update on Cam York’s injury status

In addition to Tocchet decided to revitalize the lines and give a look that most of the Flyers fan base wants, we received some slightly positive reporting on the status of defenseman Cam York and when we could expect him to make his season debut.

According to PHLY’s Charlie O’Connor, there is a world where York is back as soon as Monday to be on the ice for the Flyers’ home opener when they host the Panthers at Xfinity Mobile Arena.

While the Flyers did open the season with him on Injured Reserve, and typically that comes with a seven-day minimum for the player to miss game action, the Flyers managed to backdate when they initially placed the blueliner on it. Basically meaning that York wouldn’t have to miss the first three games if they set the start day to his IR stint for when the NHL season started last Tuesday. A whole lot of words to say that we could see a very welcome addition to this blue line sooner than some thought.

Could Nazar Lead Blackhawks in Points Over Bedard?

Frank Nazar got off to a hot start in the Chicago Blackhawks' season opener against the Florida Panthers, scoring a goal and an assist. He then followed that up with another assist in the second game of the 2025-26 season against the Boston Bruins. At this point of the season (which is very early), he second-year center leads the team in points. Could we have a race on our hands between Nazar and Connor Bedard?

After no points in the opener, Bedard got on the board for the Blackhawks with a goal and an assist himself in the second game. Along with three other forwards, these are the five players that are expected to be the top-5 scorers on the team by the end of the season.

Nazar is playing well over 20 minutes per game already as the second line center, but Bedard is a sliver short of 22 minutes per game through two games. Both are going to continue to be leaned on, which is a good thing if they are driving play and producing.

Bedard has been the Blackhawks' leader in points in each of his first two seasons in the NHL, recording 61 and 67 points. Nazar hasn't had the full season to challenge him yet, and Nazar does have the skill and ability as a 13th overall pick one year prior to Bedard being drafted by Chicago.

Nazar has only played 58 career games in the NHL compared to Bedard's 152, but the latter has the much better points-per-game to this point. It is a new season though, and both of the young centers have equally capable wingers to complement them. Chicago still hasn't managed to surround Bedard, or Nazar for that case, with elite players yet, so they are on pretty even playing ground. Both are on the top power play, and there are 80 games left to see who finishes on top.

One thing that Blackhawks fans should be excited about is that these two appear to be set to push each other to succeed and get better and it should be a fun race.

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